Passenger service system

Alan Levin Bloomberg News Published 6:52 AM EDT Sep 13, 2018 As railroads across the nation race to complete a congressional deadline for installing safety technology, Amtrak is threatening to substitute buses for trains on lines that lack the equipment, triggering a furious response from the mostly rural areas. Amtrak says it’s just one measure being considered as it seeks assurances that local governments will help fund needed improvements. Local officials and U.S. lawmakers from Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico said such a move would be devastating to their communities. “It’s just frustrating that we didn’t sit down and talk about how to do that nine months ago, before the bomb dropped on the busing,” said Steve Cottrell, assistant to the city manager in Garden City, Kansas. Garden City is a stopping point for Amtrak’s iconic Southwest Chief, which runs once a day in each direction from Chicago to Los Angeles. The subject is likely to be … [Read more...] about Amtrak may put passengers on buses in safety fight

By YONETTE JOSEPH New York Times News Service, 9:40 AM The era of driverless cars is coming down the road. But not quickly enough for one British man, who ran afoul of the law when he was caught in the front passenger seat of a Tesla set to Autopilot, cruising at about 40 mph with his hands behind his head. No one was in the driver’s seat. Witnesses told police that “traffic was heavy” last May when they saw the nondriver, Bhavesh Patel, 39, of Nottingham, England, in his white Tesla S60 on the M1 motorway near Hemel Hempstead. Police said in a statement that Patel, who had owned the car for about five months before the stunt, admitted that what he had done was “silly” but said that the car was capable of something “amazing” and that he was just the “unlucky one who got caught.” On April 20, Patel pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and a court barred him from driving for 18 months. According to the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire … [Read more...] about He drove a Tesla on Autopilot from the passenger seat. The court was not amused.

U.K. man says he's the "unlucky one who got caught" Free Price Quote From a Local Dealer View Special Offers No Obligation, Fast & Simple Free New Car Quote Change Car Tesla says its new vehicles are equipped with the hardware needed for fully driverless operation, but as it stands today with regulations, testing, and the availability of features, Autopilot remains a semi-autonomous system that requires a driver’s hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. But one man in Britain failed to make this distinction, or decided anyway to kick back in the passenger seat while his Tesla Model S cruised down the highway in Autopilot mode. The police eventually caught up to him, and now he’s paying a hefty penalty for the stunt. According to a police statement, the man switched into Autopilot before transferring to the passenger seat and resting his hands behind his head. That left no one in the driver seat to operate the steering wheel and pedals, as seen in … [Read more...] about Driver Who Sat in Passenger Seat of Tesla on Autopilot Gets 18-Month Driving Ban

UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT) has announced a “special service campaign” (otherwise known as a product recall) to replace the inflator module in the airbag system on the front passenger side in various vehicle models. The current exercise involves around 21,000 units of the Toyota Vios, Corolla Altis and Alphard manufactured from January 2013 to December 2014 and which were officially sold by UMWT in Malaysia. The defect is due to propellant degradation occurring after prolonged exposure to high absolute humidity and temperatures as well as high temperature cycling. The inflator module contains a non-desiccated, phase-stabilised ammonium nitrate propellant that may cause the rupture of the module. Should such a situation occur, metal fragments will pass through the airbag as it inflates and shoot into the vehicle interior at high speed, leading to serious injury or death. Parts for this campaign are currently being sourced by TMC and once the parts are available, UMWT will … [Read more...] about UMW Toyota recalls 21k units of 2013-2014 Vios, Altis and Alphard for passenger airbag inflator replacement